At about 2 a.m. Wednesday 62 veterans and their guardians returned home after a trip of a lifetime with the Central Missouri Honor Flight.
The veterans who made the trip to Washington D.C. Tuesday got a hero’s welcome home.
About 500 motorcycles escorted two buses full of the veterans back to the Courtyard Marriott in Columbia Wednesday morning.
When they got to the hotel, the vets were greeted with American flags waving, music, and lots of red, white and blue.
The motorcyclists, or Honor Flight Riders as they’re called, said they couldn’t be more proud to help.
"In the military, when they were at war with the Nazis and Japanese, they stood in pouring rain, they went through things that we couldn’t even imagine that they went through," Honor Flight Rider Reed Hickam said. "So us standing out here in the middle of the night, waiting on them is nothing compared to what they did for us and we all gladly stand out here."
This was the first Central Missouri Honor Flight of the year and the 18th overall trip for the chapter.
The whirlwind one-day-trip allows aging veterans to see their war memorial in the nation’s capital at no cost to them.
Tonight at 10 p.m. on KRCG 13 News Nightside, KRCG 13’s Meghan Lane shares the experiences of three veterans on the trip.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG